Friday, November 18, 2005

More fallout from Sony's bad karma

I will assume you didn't need me to tell you about Sony's decision to include a rootkit on about fifty-two of the CDs they released. Bad Sony, for selling music CDs that install the rootkit, then ask if you mind it installing additional files, and if you say no, not cleaning them off. Then someone had the nerve to write a virus that took advantage of it.

Then there were the licence violation accusations. It would seem that the rootkit took advantage of some open source software that is licensed under the GPL. Bad, bad Sony for not distributing the source files.

What with all the fuss over the rootkit, people started to take a closer look at what Sony was installing on people's computers. Turns out, in addition to a rootkit, Sony was also installing some spyware, courtesy of Media Max.

Looks like Sony just can't win. Now they have a USB scandal on their hands. Search the site, get a surprise. Of course, they have since updated their site, but el Reg is kind enough to show it's readers what they are missing.

It will be interesting to see what the effect of all of this is on Sony. I've heard from a lot of people that they are seriously considering a boycott of Sony products. At the very least, Sony burned up a lot of customer goodwill this holiday season. Not much more than that to say, I guess. The linked articles speak for themselves.

UPDATE: Here's a nice handy timeline of Sony's rootkit woes since things started to surface.